The 10 biggest business stories on Tuesday February 23

BHP Billiton sinks to $5.67bn loss; Ladbrokes posts first loss in a decade; Bill and Melinda Gates say young people are needed to solve climate change

Bill Gates has published his annual letter on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Getty Images)

1. BHP Billiton sinks to $5.7 billion (£4 billion) loss in the latest six months, it’s big first loss in 16 years. The mining company more than halved its dividend and abandoned its progressive policy of keeping payouts the same or higher.

2. Ladbrokes has reported a pre-tax loss of £43.2 million compared with a profit of £37.7 million a year earlier. The bookmaker blames the loss on retail impairments worth £53.2 million, merger transaction costs of £17.6 million and shop closure costs of £19.8 million.

3. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined WH Ireland (WHI), a wealth management firm, £1.2 million and restricted its recruitment of new clients after it failed to put effective systems in place to detect market abuse and protect insider information.

4. Ralph Hamers, ING Group NV Chief Executive Officer said the Dutch lender would probably follow other major banks in reducing its London staffing levels if the UK withdrew from the European Union in an interview with Bloomberg News.

5. Heathrow airport has reported a 22 per cent rise in pre-tax annual profits to £223 million, from £183 million a year earlier. It has also achieved its highest passenger service with 75 million passengers passing through the airport in 2015 a rise of 2.2 per cent on a year earlier.

6. Persimon has become the latest developer to report huge profits rises as the UK housing market continues to boom. The company has reported a 34 per cent rise in pre-tax profits for 2015.

7. More than 30 per cent of people who start apprenticeships in Britain fail to complete them, and the numbers have worsened every year for the past three years. The data on “success rates”, which the Financial Times has drawn from official spreadsheets, raise questions about the government’s flagship policy to boost the number of apprenticeships to improve the skills of Britain’s workforce, according to the FT report.

8. The North Sea oil and gas industry stands “at the edge of a chasm”, a stark industry report warns today, after a collapse in vital new investment and exploration for new fields.

9. Bill Gates has published his annual letter on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and has directed it at high school students for the first time. This year's note takes on the topic of energy. The philantropist called on the young because he believes they will be the ones responsible for coming up with the “crazy-seeming ideas” necessary to combat climate change.

10. The US Justice Department is looking at court orders forcing Apple to help investigators extract data from iPhones in about a dozen undisclosed cases across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources. This move comes on the heels of the San Bernardino, California, shooting case.